1-26 Championships - Day 5

Darn, Bill Hill just had to be optimistic today... After the great day we had yesterday, it seemed that today, with a drier airmass with less wind should be absolutely phenomenal. However, it amounted to a fairly challenging day.

Chip Garner called an ambitious 3 hour TAT task, taking us East to Clines Corners, North up to Glorieta and South to Padernal. The threat today was the airmass drying out to the South and it seemed that Francois Pin was the most frightened when he exclaimed at the pilot meeting, "BLUE!? I HATE blue!" It became evident that the day was going to be challenging right in the start sector. It was rather challenging to climb up to cloudbase and some pilots elected to leave the start sector lower to get on course such as to come back before it's too late. However, closer to Clines Corner the thermals became better organized and more defined, with better streeting as well. The run up North with the tailwind was very nice for about half the way into the Glorieta sector. However, at that point the street which was running comfortably between 11-13,000ft disappeared and it became very challenging. There were sizeable blue areas to traverse and the sink was ATROCIOUS! Furthermore, the wind seemed to constantly shift direction, which broke apart and moved the thermals, making it difficult to get a good, consistent climb. Some even found themselves scratching down low, looking at rather undesirable places to landout. However, some went deep into the first sector due to the threat of blue down South later in the day, and it worked out well for everyone. There was not a single landout today! There were a couple land-backs at the airport prior to the start, but it seemed that with the Shaws present and the 1-26 annual meeting about to commence, landing out was not an option!

Overall, it was a satisfying albeit challenging day, that brought out the good, the bad and the ugly in the Moriarty sky. But that's what we're here for, right?